CD / SACD players and transports — Fosi Audio Merak

The Fosi Audio Merak is a compact top-loading CD player for the desktop that combines a disc transport, DAC, headphone amplifier and line-level output in one slim box. It adds CD ripping to a USB drive and playback of music files from USB storage. Fosi Audio lists it at USD 139.99. The disc sits under a lid on a clip-style holder, and playback starts when the lid is closed and stops when it is opened.

Key specs that matter

Three chips form the signal chain - an SC6137D handling the transport, a CS43131 DAC and a TPA6120 headphone amplifier. From CD, the line output delivers at least 2 V RMS with 124 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 124 dB dynamic range and 0.0009 % THD+N, all A-weighted. The 3.5 mm headphone output is rated at 210 mW per channel into 32 ohm at under 1 % THD+N, with 0.002 % THD+N and 121 dB for both SNR and dynamic range. Noise floor on both outputs is 3 microvolts or less. The player accepts headphones from 16 to 300 ohm and processes PCM at up to 16-bit and 96 kHz.

Engineering and use context

Supported discs are CDDA, CD-R and CD-RW, and data CD-Rs holding FLAC, WAV, WMA, AAC or MP3 files also play. Hybrid SACDs work only through their CD layer. A USB-A port reads drives up to 128 GB with MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, APE and WMA files. One-touch ripping saves a disc as uncompressed 16-bit and 44.1 kHz WAV files on a FAT32 drive of up to 32 GB. An electronic skip protection switch buffers 60 seconds of audio, gapless playback is supported, and a low-jitter clock drives the conversion. Four modes cover single play, repeat one, repeat all and shuffle. An OLED screen sits between two banks of front buttons, and an orange slider sets headphone volume but is disabled in line and optical modes. Power arrives through USB-C at 5 V and 2 A, and an infrared remote works from up to 7 m away. The rear panel holds a 3.5 mm line output, the optical port, a 12 V trigger output, the USB-A socket and the power input.

Pairing

The fixed line output suits any integrated amplifier or powered speakers with an analogue input, and an amplifier with a trigger input can be switched on with the player through the trigger output. The optical output passes a bit-perfect CD stream to an external DAC, turning the Merak into a transport. Wired headphones connect directly to the front jack. Optical and analogue cables are not supplied, only a USB-A to USB-C power lead.

Alternatives

The Fosi Audio DISC Nano is a portable CD player from the brand with a CS43198 DAC, Bluetooth output and a rechargeable 800 mAh battery.